Choices the third of four in the Shattered Series, (Shattered, Forgiven, Choices, and The After,with)

Chapter 4

He watched them as they sat on the pier, he could feel his excitement build what he was more excited for  he wasn't quite sure. He just knew he was about to kill two birds with one stone.

"I had a great time, Trey" Mallory said, "I was beginning to think you would never ask me out"

He laughed, "You could have asked me out you know" he took her hand and they made their way towards his car.

"What the hell?" Trey said when he saw his car, and Zeke sitting on the hood. "Get your ass off my car!"

"Oh, is this your car? My bad" he jumped down from the hood, "Mallory" he smiled and walked off.

"Annie, last night was wonderful." Bob told her, she always seemed to be holding back but last night was different, "you know you are welcome here anytime" he had hoped she would have moved in with him and Amy but she wanted to stay with Adam and Kim.

"It was nice" she replied, "I need to go" she told him, "I love you dad"

Bob smiled, "I love you too baby, tell Adam I said hi"

Zeke laughed the entire drive home, he had gotten exactly what he needed and that dickhead Trey was none the wiser.

He watched as they said their goodbyes, and waited for Trey to leave the campus.

He quickly sent the text and waited.

"You're home late" Helen said when Trey finally walked in, "did you have a good time?"

"Yea, I did" he kissed her cheek, "what about you another wild night?"

She laughed, "for sure, did you get the text I sent you?" She asked him, "Declan made the lacrosse team, he's thrilled"

Trey shook his head no, "that's awesome" he felt his back pocket for his phone, only to find his pocket empty, "I must have left it in my car, I will be right back"

As he opened the car door and searched the center console, he made the realization that not only was his phone gone but so was his gym bag, "son of a bitch"

Mallory smiled as she read the text and hurried back outside, "Trey, where are you?"

A figure emerged from the shadows, "who are you?" She asked his face obscured by the black hoodie he had pulled over his head, "what do you want" she asked as he lunged for her, "No let me go!"

"Stop screaming!" he ordered, when she wouldn't shut up he forced the chloroform soaked rag in her face finally silencing her.

He dragged her limp body over to his car, and quickly drove off.

Her cellphone laying on the concrete.

THREE HOURS LATER

"Hey, you see this?" He pointed his flashlight on the cellphone, he bent down "someone must be having a heart attack thinking they lost their phone"

"Grab it, we can lock it up in the safe at the office, whoever lost it will be looking for it"

The two campus police officers returned to the office and placed the cell phone in the safe and posted an alert on the website letting the students know a phone had been found.

"Mallory, come on we're going to be late" Ashley pounded on the door, she turned to Jade, "she must have had a wild night with Trey"

"I bet she did, he's gorgeous!" Jade replied, "here I have a key" she pulled the key from her key ring and handed it to Ashley.

"Wake up girl!" Ashley said as she opened the door and found the room empty, "you think she stayed the night with him?"

"Doubtful, he lives with his mom off campus" Jade told her, and besides her purse is still here"

"Son of a bitch!" Hank screamed, "Antonio, call everyone in. They just found another body, this one in a wooded area near the campus"

"Adam, wake up" Kim shook him, "Adam, your phone is ringing"

"I'm up" she handed him the phone "Ruzek" he answered.

"Shit, okay I'm on my way" Adam ended the call, "that was Antonio, another body has been found" he got dressed, "this one near the campus" he knew a shitstorm was brewing.

Adam arrived at the crime scene, Atwater pulling up seconds behind, "Hey Kevin" he shook his hand, "this not the way I wanted to start my day, I can't wait until we nail this son of a bitch"

"I hear you, we need to find him and soon" he put on the latex gloves, "Halstead said the guy's getting sloppy"

Adam wasn't so sure about that, "I don't know man, he never left anything behind at the other crimes scenes and now he possibly leaves clothes and a cell phone" he shook his head, "I don't buy it"

Al joined them at the scene, "Hank what are you thinking?" He had been brought in to assist them, the mayor was barely holding it together and Hank was feeling the pressure.

Hank studied the victim, she was typical of the girls that had been killed, but he couldn't understand the killer suddenly becoming so sloppy. He was starting to think that this wasn't the same guy, "I hate to say it but I think we may be dealing with a copy cat killer, the mayor's gonna lose his shit"

News vans began rolling on the scene, "who the fuck alerted the press?"

"What are you still doing here, I thought you had class?" Kim asked Annie who was in the middle of playing a game with Anthony.

"I got an email from school all classes have been cancelled, not sure why though" she pulled the email up on her phone, "they're cancelled until further notice"

"That's strange, I wonder why" Kim turned the television on just in time to see the tail end of a press conference, "well, that explains it"

"My god, that's awful" Annie sat slack jawed as the reporter finished speaking, "is that what Adam's been working on?"

Kim nodded, "yes, it's why he's been so stressed"

"Boss, I know who the phone belongs too" Mouse handed him the evidence bag the phone inside, "Daniel Burgess the Third aka, Trey"

"Are you sure?" Hank asked.

"Positive sir, I double checked it with the provider, it's definitely his"

"Excuse me, I'm Jon Preston I'm with campus security, a couple of my guys found a cell phone outside the dorms late last night" he told Hank and Mouse, "I don't know if it's related or not but its in the safe in my office"

"Mouse, go with him and get the phone. You also need to pull your security camera footage" Hank said. "Have you or your guys noticed anything suspicious, anything at all?"

"Nothing, out of the ordinary" Jon said, "please let me know what I can do to help"

"I think we need to call the police, this isn't like Mallory, something's wrong" Jade said as they sat on Mallory's bed.

Both their phones starting ringing, they each read the message "oh my god"

----Note----

This was a tricky chapter to write, I hate when I'm in a groove and need to stop writing for whatever reason as I usually end up hitting a wall and that's exactly what happened with this chapter.

Life really needs to leave me alone when I'm trying to write.

As always, thanks for reading!

-Kristi